Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text are by Toby Weiss, and copyrighted to same.

Blogging the built environment since May 2005.

You don’t need an architecture degree to know the built environment, just a set of eyes to observe with.

One of my favorite slams in this blog’s comments is, “I don’t really understand the motivations of left wing highly opinionated academic types.” I’m still pondering how tear-down and in-fill supposedly reveals political affiliation. But I understand the gist of it: only people schooled in architecture go on about architecture, condescendingly.

I have no degrees of any sort, am autodidactic rather than academic, and am just trying to make sense of and record the world around me. I have also been exasperated by the proclamations of “academic types” when their opinions are based on theory rather than reality.

We live in and use the built environment everyday, yet we’re too often hesitant to speak up lest we sound stupid…. to architectural academics who don’t live in your world? Please.

Let’s talk about buildings and spaces in a language we all understand. Let’s really see what’s around us rather than look. Let’s accidentally pick up some useful information along the way. Let’s dance!